Memphis wants to keep Justin Fuente around and they’re pulling out all the stops to make that happen.
Throughout the course of the past few seasons, the Memphis Tigers are one of the hottest teams in college football outside of the Power 5 conferences. This has a lot to do with the success of head coach Justin Fuente leading this team, and with that being the case, there are a lot of big-name schools out there interested in his services beginning next year.
However, Memphis will not be letting their head coach go without a fight, and that is certainly evidenced by something that took place recently.
The biggest win this 8-2 Memphis team pulled off this year was certainly over Ole Miss out of the SEC, the team that handed Alabama their lone loss on the year. Before that game, though, the Tigers administration offered Fuente a deal to stick around in the future that reportedly would have made him the highest-paid coach not from a Power 5 conference.
This “extraordinary offer” taking place was admitted by Memphis Athletic Director Tom Bowen. Fuente also commented on the proposal, but without stating exactly how much it was for.
“I was sincerely humbled by the university’s offer to step up,” Fuente said via CommercialAppeal.com. “In addition, this administration realizes how important the staff is to me and is trying to step up substantially for our coaching staff.”
Fuente is 25-22 in his four seasons as the coach of the Tigers, but there’s no denying the success that he has had the past two years in rebuilding this program. It’s no surprise that a lot of the Power 5 schools that need a new coach are hot on his tail, so now the question turns to whether or not Memphis can step up and convince him to stay.
From this report here, they’re certainly doing everything they can.